We have despatched thirty thousand hawks of the legion of Mounted Archers.All the hook-clawed birds are moving against him, the kestrel, the buzzard, the vulture, the great-horned owl; they cleave the air so that it resounds with the flapping of their wings; they are looking everywhere for the god, who cannot be far away; indeed, if Imistake not, he is coming from yonder side.
PITHETAERUS
To arms, all, with slings and bows! This way, all our soldiers;shoot and strike! Some one give me a sling!
CHORUS (singing)
War, a terrible war is breaking out between us and the gods! Come, let each one guard Air, the son of Erebus, in which the clouds float.Take care no immortal enters it without your knowledge.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
Scan all sides with your glance.Hark! methinks I can hear the rustle of the swift wings of a god from heaven.
(The Machine brings in IRIS, in the form of a young girl.)PITHETAERUS
Hi! you woman! where, where, are you flying to? Halt, don't stir! keep motionless! not a beat of your wing! (She pauses in her flight.) Who are you and from what country? You must say whence you come.
IRIS
I come from the abode of the Olympian gods.
PITHETAERUS
What's your name, ship or head-dress?
IRIS
I am swift Iris.
PITHETAERUS
Paralus or Salaminia?
IRIS
What do you mean?
PITHETAERUS
Let a buzzard rush at her and seize her.
IRIS
Seize me? But what do all these insults mean?
PITHETAERUS
Woe to you!
IRIS
I do not understand it.
PITHETAERUS
By which gate did you pass through the wall, wretched woman?
IRIS
By which gate? Why, great gods, I don't know.
PITHETAERUS
You hear how she holds us in derision.Did you present yourself to the officers in command of the jays? You don't answer.Have you a permit, bearing the seal of the storks?
IRIS
Am I dreaming?
PITHETAERUS
Did you get one?
IRIS
Are you mad?
PITHETAERUS
No head-bird gave you a safe-conduct?
IRIS
A safe-conduct to me.You poor fool!
PITHETAERUS
Ah! and so you slipped into this city on the sly and into these realms of air-land that don't belong to you.
IRIS
And what other roads can the gods travel?
PITHETAERUS
By Zeus! I know nothing about that, not I.But they won't pass this way.And you still dare to complain? Why, if you were treated according to your deserts, no Iris would ever have more justly suffered death.
IRIS
I am immortal.
PITHETAERUS
You would have died nevertheless.-Oh! that would be truly intolerable! What! should the universe obey us and the gods alone continue their insolence and not understand that they must submit to the law of the strongest in their due turn? But tell me, where are you flying to?
IRIS
I? The messenger of Zeus to mankind, I am going to tell them to sacrifice sheep and oxen on the altars and to fill their streets with the rich smoke of burning fat.
PITHETAERUS
Of which gods are you speaking?
IRIS
Of which? Why, of ourselves, the gods of heaven.
PITHETAERUS
You, gods?
IRIS
Are there others then?
PITHETAERUS
Men now adore the birds as gods, and it's to them, by Zeus, that they must offer sacrifices, and not to Zeus at all!
IRIS (in tragic style)
Oh! fool! fool! fool! Rouse not the wrath of the gods, for it is terrible indeed.Armed with the brand of Zeus, justice would annihilate your race; the lightning would strike you as it did Licymnius and consume both your body and the porticos of your palace.
PITHETAERUS
Here! that's enough tall talk.Just you listen and keep quiet!
Do you take me for a Lydian or a Phrygian and think to frighten me with your big words? Know, that if Zeus worries me again, I shall go at the head of my eagles, who are armed with lightning, and reduce his dwelling and that of Amphion to cinders.I shall send more than six hundred porphyrions clothed in leopards' skins up to heaven against him; and formerly a single Porphyrion gave him enough to do.As for you, his messenger, if you annoy me, I shall begin by getting between your thighs, and even though you are Iris, you will be surprised at the erection the old man can produce; it's three times as good as the ram on a ship's prow!
IRIS
May you perish, you wretch, you and your infamous words!
PITHETAERUS
Won't you get out of here quickly? Come, stretch your wings or look out for squalls!
IRIS
If my father does not punish you for your insults...
(The Machine takes IRIS away.)
PITHETAERUS
Ha!...but just you be off elsewhere to roast younger folk than us with your lightning.
CHORUS (singing)
We forbid the gods, the sons of Zeus, to pass through our city and the mortals to send them the smoke of their sacrifices by this road.
PITHETAERUS
It's odd that the messenger we sent to the mortals has never returned.
(The HERALD enters, wearing a golden garland on his head.)HERALD
Oh! blessed Pithetaerus, very wise, very illustrious, very gracious, thrice happy, very...Come, prompt me, somebody, do PITHETAERUSGet to your story!
HERALD
All peoples are filled with admiration for your wisdom, and they award you this golden crown.
PITHETAERUS
I accept it.But tell me, why do the people admire me?
HERALD
Oh you, who have founded so illustrious a city in the air, you know not in what esteem men hold you and how many there are who burn with desire to dwell in it.Before your city was built, all men had a mania for Sparta; long hair and fasting were held in honour, men went dirty like Socrates and carried staves.Now all is changed.